Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

For anyone who experiences cold weather in a Deli, make sure you put in some kind of block heater. It took 3 hours with an electric heater, blankets, battery charger, and a spare battery (3 in total) to get the beast to fire today. I bought one of the Temro resevoir pumps ($65 anywhere) to install in the heater hoses. Once that is in, cold weather should be doable much more easily. I also should check the glowplugs to make sure they are up to snuff.

For those with WVO, I think the old lard would not work in these conditions. Although this summer I may put in a WVO system (can use 8 months a year) and propane injection.

As for handling on snow and ice, there have been no issues. I am running Bridgestone Dueler A/T's which seem good for the conditions here although I would not have put these on if they weren't already there. The back is a little light so a couple of bags of wood pellets for my stove keep it down. The limited slip differential in the rear is good for getting going, but it ocassionally locks up on a downshift causing the back end to slide out a bit. As long as your not accelerating hard it is never a problem.

did you need any specific block heater?
paul

I made it through last winter in Quebec with mine. I had a recirculating heater plumbed into the heater hoses. It still took several hours to heat the thing from cold.
There is enough room to install 2 batteries side by side, that gives some more cranking power. Don't forget the lighter oil, and hope that you have 'winter' diesel available.
You are lucky to have an limited slip diff, they are somewhat rare...

right now it is -25c in Calgary, and has been for about 4 days now... tomorrow is supposed to be worse... my garage is too short to fit a Delica...

The Delica I'm getting is a "cold weather" version (has the 2 batteries already, not sure if there's any other difference?)

a couple questions...

1) im guessing there's no block heater in these things?
2) I've heard a lot of good things about circulating coolant heaters (mainly the Webasto ones), anyone know of a shop in Calgary that fits these things?

Green1 wrote:right now it is -25c in Calgary, and has been for about 4 days now... tomorrow is supposed to be worse... my garage is too short to fit a Delica...

The Delica I'm getting is a "cold weather" version (has the 2 batteries already, not sure if there's any other difference?)

a couple questions...

1) I'm guessing there's no block heater in these things?
2) I've heard a lot of good things about circulating coolant heaters (mainly the Webasto ones), anyone know of a shop in Calgary that fits these things?

Mine is the cold weather edition, and it has the two battery set-up, larger alternator, inverter, and the block heater. So I'm sure your's will two.

Cheers

well... I know it has the dual batteries, that's the only difference I noticed off the top, but I only had it for a really short while before it broke down and went back to the importer for repairs... :(

I hope it has the larger alternator as that will be very usefull for my purposes... you mention an inverter? as in for 110V AC? where would that be hiding?

as for block heater... didn't notice one, but I didn't spend much time looking either...

I was looking through a Pajero factory manual and saw a model with a fuel heater mounted on the priming pump at the filter head.

Anyone have one of these? Is it also part of the cold weather version package?

cheers

I've got the Temro 1000 watt circulating heater (part #3305002) to put in this week. I also have dual batteries and the 90 amp alternator. The batteries get well taxed when I haven't had an working alternator so are not always up to starting duties in the cold.

I have considered the Webasto style heater, but they are around $1000 installed - I think it would be great so I could have it "plugged in" at work (I'm a forester, there are no plugs where I work) so it would be a guaranteed start after a cold day in the bush.

The LSD is a rare option, but sure is nice for my line of work. I'm not sure, but there also seems to be one on the front, I have tried to spin the wheels on one side only, but all four always lock up. Should be able to spin only one side if no diff locker

Temro and Arctic Fox also make a fuel preheater, it uses coolant in the heater hoses to heat the fuel before it goes into the injection pump. I think that I will get one as it makes sense here when it is cold.

James

Hey Doc,

On my wifes Deli' I did the test, with the vehicle lifted all round, spinning one tire by hand and the other will spin the opposite direction if you have LSD.

Is this an accurate test.

Kev - amazed what she'll climb in the snow with the chains on the front!

Well, with all the bitching that i have to do about the experience i had with my van so far, i must say the thing plows in the snow once in four wheel drive! we had like two feet of snow in victoria and with the wind chill factor, the temp went down to minus 10 at night. the only problem i had was the locks were frozen which i resolved with lock de-icer from crappy tire and once in, the van fired right up, a little rough at first, she shook, hesitated and coughed-up a bit, but i locked that throtle at about 1,200 rpm's for awhile and she warmed right up! i was going places were nobody could even think of trying and wow does that thing climbs! i'm originally from back east, Quebec actually and for me, a couple feet of snow and minus ten is a breeze, i had a blast in my van all night trying to get stuck with no success while the town and the rest of the numb-nuts were shut down! i even helped some guys out of their snowed in cars with my winch! my delica has only one battery and i'm nor exactly sure what is lsd implies and how to find out if i have it or not, but it sure handled well in the snow and ice once in 4X4 mode.. my gas consumtion is still horrible even after they re-built my leaky turbo, and oh boy, is it ever even worse in four wheel drive!! they attempted also to fix the water leak from the front driver side quarter panel but it still leaks just as much, my carpet in the front is wrecked!!

Kev,

I looked around, and the best test is on wet or snowy grass - back on, put it in drive and pin it - if you have LSD there will be two ruts and you'll likely be able to move.

The other, if you jack up both wheels of the ground, and spin one side, the tire on the other side will spin in the same direction as the one you are spinning. However, this is subject to debate.

A final test is to jack up one wheel and attempt to drive on the jack (in 2wd). If you can you got a locker.

James

docsavage wrote:I've got the Temro 1000 watt circulating heater (part #3305002) to put in this week. I also have dual batteries and the 90 amp alternator. The batteries get well taxed when I haven't had an working alternator so are not always up to starting duties in the cold.

I'd like to hear how this heater works out for you when you get it up and running. I'm going to be having my Deli up at Rogers Pass for much of the winter (without anywhere to plug it in) and I need to get something figured out soon for cold-weather starting.

The Temro tank style heater was a no go. There is no room anywhere to mount the thing. I tried for hours to make it work but gave up and put in a lower rad hose heater.

I have a line on a military surplus self contained coolany heater. The price is right, but there are no manuals etc. I've got one on the the way. I may use it as a heater for the van for winter camping as well as coolant heating. It would be nice to not have to plug it in and not have to worry about starting.

James

If I was to put in a used Webasto water heater that I found for cheap, would I want a 12 volt or 24 volt?

Josh

I would think 12V, unless you have a two battery system. Though I'm not sure if I've heard anyone with two batteries say if they are connected in series or parallel. I would think series so that you're still operating at 12V, but I could be wrong...